NAMING YOUR CHARACTERS

author=Euphorian link=topic=1644.msg28136#msg28136 date=1219597693

author=demondestiny link=topic=1644.msg27616#msg27616 date=1219146711
Naming Characters actually comes very easy to me. Since i like to play a lot of games such as Final Fantasy and Valkyrie Profiles i usually go for more japanese names. Sazuka, Iris, Shogan, Vain. Those are quite common names that i like to use in my games.

The other problem with foreign names, Japanese especially (at least for me), is with the longer ones, I start having trouble remembering the Atsushis from the Suzukis From the Kyosukes and the Shimarus, and it all just becomes muddy.

Or maybe I'm just bad with remembering names. That could be it, actually.

Which brings up an old piece of advice from script writing that makes sense in this context too: try to make the names of major characters start with different letters wherever possible. Doubling up once or twice might be a necessity, but it's a documented aspect of human reading that, unless we're paying really careful attention, we only really notice the outtermost letters of a word. Which is part why it's so easy to miss typos--it's easy to make the mistake of writing "wrod," and if you read through it as part of a big block of text, chances are you won't notice that you switched the order of the letters around.

Length of words is a key factor here, too, so be careful about having words with similar letters and identical length, even if they start off differently, too.

That was a really long way of saying: make it as easy as possible for your audience to remember who's who without having to stop themselves and think back "Now which one's Eowyn and which one's Eomer again?"*

As always, I've got to bring this back to "TOLKIEN SUCKS!"

author=kentona link=topic=1644.msg28740#msg28740 date=1220056048
Tolkien is AWESOME compared to Robert Jordan (RIP). Fuck, I've read whole chapters where I couldn't remember who some third string character is supposed to be and what her motives were - and it was critical to the arc.

I will not contend with that statement. I've read all of those doorstoppers to date, and the only names I can ever remember are the ones who were introduced in the first book, plus Cadsuane and Asmodeus. And that's only because I loved Asmodeus and knew the name beforehand.

Those kind of names always, always throw me off. I'm bad with names as it is, but that's a deathstroke for me.

Actually, annoying nicknames can really bring out a character.
If you've read any J. T. Edson books, and you remember 'Lon', you know what I'm talking about.

Necromancy aside, I think the first two methods you listed there could result in some TRULY HORRIBLE NAMES.

You know who is the worst at generating character names ever? JK ROWLING. That cunt.

Hear about the Bollywood movie called Hari Puttar? It's about a boy who travels to England and gets caught up in saving the world from evil.

Apparently a judge ruled that it didn't infringe on JK's work.

Try reading Barry Trotter! I couldn't stop laughing when i was reading this. The characters are all stupid. Alpo Bumblemore. ;)

Interesting post, Narcodis!

Not so much because of the naming of the characters...but because of how different people plan their games in advance. I see that you usually develop the characters first, give them a sort of name, and a synopsis, and then build the world related to that character.

I personally create the world, conflict, and stories (using generic or simple names, sometimes using my own irl name, or "Seraph"), and then I worry about giving the characters their permanent names and dialogue. Usually, when I'm writing a story, I aim to insert as little dialogue as possible.

This way, when it's time to add the dialogue, I already know the whole story (or most of it) and I can base the dialogue on the direction of the story.

That's just me, of course :) I think it would be interesting for me to create a character and create the world around that character.

Again, great post!